DACCA LOAN OFFICE COMPANY Vs. ANANDA CHANDRA ROY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal is against an order passed under the Indian Companies Act, VI of 1882, and it is preferred under Section 169 of that Act. A rule was also granted on the opposite party to show cause why the order complained of should not be set aside. The appeal and the rule have been heard together and will be governed by this judgment.

(2.) It seems that Purna Chandra Chakravarti, one of the depositors in the Dacca Loan Office Company, Limited, applied to the Civil Court under Section 131 of the Indian Companies Act for the winding up of this company. The ground on which he based his petition was that he was a depositor of more than Rs. 600 in the company; that hg had made a demand for Rs. 200, and that it had not been complied with within the time mentioned in the Act. He further stated that the company was in a very embarrassed state, that Rs. 83,000 due to the company had been barred lay limitation, and that Rs. 28,000 due to the depositors could not be paid off; that the company at a meeting had resolved that the depositors must take their own steps to recover the money: and he further stated that, in cones quence of the embarrassed state of the company, shares of the, value of Rs. 100 had fallen to Rs. 20.

(3.) His petition was presented on the 14 of April 1902, and between the 24 of April and 14 of May, a number of other persons, shareholders, depositors, and contributories, put in petitions asking the Court to make them parties to the petition presented by Purna Chandra Chakravarti for the winding up of the company. No formal order appears to have been passed on these petitions, but the petitioners appear to have been allowed to join in the petition. The Secretary to the company appeared to oppose the petition and was joined by some of the shareholders. Other shareholders and depositors also put in. objections to the petition.